How Teams Made The 2021 Playoffs After Missing Out in 2020
Cole Smith
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There are seven teams that are in the playoffs in 2021 that missed out on the tournament altogether in 2020. These teams turned their fortunes around in 2021 in a myriad of ways. Some teams just got healthy. Others saw their fortunes change once they got a quarterback. And then a few others saw flashes of success in 2020 before putting together more sustained success in 2021.
If anything, though, it provides hope for the Minnesota Vikings in 2022. Despite a coaching and GM change, there is still talent sprinkled throughout the roster. Are there parallels between the 2021 Vikings and the teams on this list? Let’s take a look.
Raiders Overcome Adversity
The Raiders finished the 2020 season at 8-8, ranking 10th in points scored but 30th in points allowed. But they had actually began the season at 6-3 before they fell apart in the second half of the year, losing five of their final seven games.
It appeared as though the Raiders would suffer a similar fate in 2021. After beginning the year 3-2, Jon Gruden resigned as head coach of the team. Las Vegas would win their next two games heading into their bye week. Then came the Henry Ruggs III tragedy. After that, Ruggs’ fellow 2020 first-round classmate Damon Arnette was released following a disturbing video posted online.
Las Vegas would lose five of their next six games, including a 48-9 loss to the Chiefs on December 12. But then the Raiders turned things around, ripping off four consecutive wins to end the season, including a bizarre win-and-in-unless-you-tie overtime matchup against the Chargers in Week 18. Now, the Raiders travel to Cincinnati to face the Bengals in the first round of the playoffs. Speaking of the Bengals….
A Franchise QB Emerges In Cincinnati
A knee injury in 2020 appeared to set No. 1 overall pick Joe Burrow back after a promising start to his career. The Bengals sputtered to a 4-11-1 record in their second season under head coach Zac Taylor. How Burrow would respond in 2021 would go a long way in determining Taylor’s future with the team.
Burrow came back and completed over 70 percent of his passes in 2021, tossing 34 touchdowns and leading three game-winning drives. The defense held its own, ranking 17th in points allowed while the offense ranked 7th in points.
It still didn’t appear as if the Bengals were playoff-bound halfway through the season though. After falling to 5-4, the team won five of their next seven games, capped off by a 34-31 victory over the Chiefs. The Bengals swept both the Ravens and Steelers as well, and their second loss to the Browns came in a meaningless Week 18 game, and they finished the season 10-7.
The Patriots Find A Quarterback
I’ll keep this one short as we all know what happened with Tom Brady following the 2019 season. The Patriots scratched and clawed their way to a 6-6 record in 2020 before losing three of their final four games of the year. They boasted the 30th ranked passing offense in football while transitioning into life without Brady.
New England drafted Alabama quarterback Mac Jones at 15th overall in the 2021 draft, and he immediately brought stability to the quarterback position that the Patriots hadn’t had in two long seasons. The offense jumped up from 27th in points scored in 2020 to sixth. Their defense was even better, ranking seventh in points allowed in 2020 and second in 2021.
A New Coach Gets Philly Back In the Dance
The Eagles went nowhere quickly in 2020, starting the season 1-4-1. They only ranked 26th in points scored and 20th in points allowed. With their season all but over, head coach Doug Pederson took quarterback Jalen Hurts out of the game, not even hiding that he was looking to “tank” the game for a higher draft position. The Eagles would finish 4-11-1.
Unfortunately for Pederson, the move backfired as he was fired after the season. New head coach Nick Sirianni came in, but the 2021 season didn’t begin as planned. At various points in the season, Philly was 2-5, 3-6, and 5-7.
Still, the Eagles had figured out their running game halfway through the season. From weeks 8-12, Philly rushed for over 200 yards four times. They would end the season with the league’s top rushing attack. And after losing 13-7 to the Giants and falling to 5-7, the Eagles ripped off four straight wins. They rested starters in Week 18, finishing the season 9-8.
San Fran Gets Healthy
Not many teams got ravaged with injuries in 2020 quite like the 49ers did. After beginning the season 4-3, the wheels fell off and the team only won two of the season’s final nine games. With players like Nick Bosa and George Kittle, among others, missing significant time, the 49ers ranked only 21st in points scored and 17th in points allowed.
Like others on this list, San Fransisco didn’t get off to the best start in 2021. The team was 3-5 following a loss to the Cardinals. But things soon turned around, and the Niners won seven of their final nine games, including an overtime thriller to beat the Rams in Week 18. The 49ers had gotten back to what helped get them to the Super Bowl two years ago and enter the playoffs with the 13th-ranked scoring offense and ninth-ranked scoring defense.
Dak Returns
Much like the Patriots, Dallas’ 2020 season went south quick when Dak Prescott broke his ankle in Week 5 against the Giants. Before that, the Cowboys had scored 31 or more points in four straight games. Still, the Dak-less Cowboys won three of their final four games of the year.
With Dak returning, Dallas got back to their high-flying ways. They boasted the league’s top-scoring offense, scoring 40-plus points five times and 51-plus in two of the final three games of the year. And even in Dak’s absence, the Cowboys won with Cooper Rush at QB, defeating our beloved Vikings 20-16 on Halloween night.
But it wasn’t just the offense doing big things in Big D. Former Falcons head coach Dan Quinn joined Dallas as their defensive coordinator. With Quinn running the defense, the unit gave up the seventh-fewest points in the league. Rookie linebacker Micah Parsons burst onto the scene as well, notching 13 sacks and priming himself to win Defensive Rookie of the Year.
Kyler Emerges
The Cardinals actually began the 2020 season very hot, improving to 6-3 following Kyler Murray’s Hail Mary pass to DeAndre Hopkins to beat the Bills. But the team lost five of their final seven games to finish the year 8-8. Even though they ranked 13th in points scored and 12th in points allowed, Arizona had underachieved.
So in 2021, the Cardinals got off to an even hotter start. They were the league’s final unbeaten team, going 7-0. After the first week of December, Arizona was sitting atop the NFC with a record of 10-2. But they ended up losing four of five to end the season, even squandering the division in the process. And despite their hot start, the team still only ranked 11th in both points scored and allowed.
Does This Mean There Is Hope For the Vikings in 2022?
As Vikings play-by-play announcer Paul Allen says, it doesn’t matter how you get to the Winner’s Circle. These seven teams all got to the playoffs in 2021 in different ways, but outside of the Cowboys, they all had rough patches in 2021. These rough patches usually mirrored rough patches from 2020 as well.
The Eagles and Raiders proved that a coaching change doesn’t kill the next season. Dallas, Cincinnati, and New England just needed a quarterback all season. The 49ers got healthy and got hot at the right time. And the Cardinals still did enough to give them a cushion to fall back on even after their late-season collapse.
This isn’t to say that the Vikings will or won’t make the playoffs in 2022. But they will likely have a shot at some point in the season. Whether they make the most of that opportunity, like these teams did, remains the question.
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